Robert Friedman Collection

A fashion film shot on Mount Etna for Robert Friedman, the Italian high-end shirt brand founded in Florence in 1977 and now based in the province of Brescia.

Etna gives a fashion film something no studio can: a backdrop that resembles nowhere else. Black lava rock, bare ground, full light and nothing in frame to tell you the scale of what you are looking at. It behaves like a set that has already been built, and it puts the garments into a hard contrast — cloth against stone, colour against black.

Sixty seconds. A collection teaser of that length forces a choice: either show many pieces in quick succession, or show few and let the place do its work. This one takes the second road, because the value of a backdrop like that lies precisely in the time you give it.

Etna remains one of the most recognisable places in Sicily, and this is one of the films that treats it as a subject rather than scenery.